Are You Prepared for an Emergency Evacuation with Your Pet? #PetPrepared

We are in a inside closet in case of a tornado

Updated: This post was originally posted in May 2016 but it can still be used today in any type of emergency that requires evacuation. Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Fires, and more. You never know what mother nature will do so why not be ready?

On Wednesday, May 10th the weatherman was talking about impending storms coming through our town. We have a plan of action in case of an emergency and we thought we were prepared.

Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Inc. is not responsible for the content of this article.

Here in Owensboro Ky, we have had a lot of different weather disasters. We have had ice storms, severe flooding, tornadoes and even hurricane Ike brought us remnants. It is springtime and that means storm time.Ma likes to make us practice our emergency plan. Since neither Scooby nor I sleep in a crate, we have to practice our crate time. You never know when we will have to be in it for our own safety. Scooby doesn't like it at all. Ma reassures him that he is a good boy but he still doesn't like it.

She keeps their important papers such as , insurance policies, emergency information, household papers in a file that is always ready to grab and go.

We also have our own emergency kit. It includes our medical records, portable bowls, vet information , first aid kit, medications, water, food, and other things.

No matter how prepared we think we are, mother nature can throw us a different plan.

Ma and a friend decided they needed to run some quick errands before the storm got here. They ran to the bank that was less that 10 minutes away and one the way back , the sky opened up and dropped buckets of rain. It started hailing so they had to pull over and wait it out. She said she didn't think it was ever going to be over. That 10 minute errand turned into almost a hour. Ma said all she could think about is that she needed to get home to us to make sure we were okay and the house was still standing.

There were tree limbs down all over the roads. As they were driving toward the house the road started to disappear before their eyes! The water started coming out of the sewer holes in the ground. It was getting deeper and deeper.

They had to keep turning around to try to find another road to take to get back to the house. Ma said she was starting to freak out because she couldn't get back to us. The fear was getting greater and greater.

She finally found a road that she could take and she could see the water coming. She floored the gas to try to beat the water but the water caught up with her but fortunately they were able to get out of it. She finally got home to us and checked everything out and gave us a big hug.

Our story had a happy ending but not everyone is as lucky as we were. Look at storms in the past. Hurricane Katrina, Moore's Tornado, Ohio flooding, and so many more.

What happens if you are at work or away from your house and disaster hits? What will happen to your pets?

If you are unable to get to your pets and they have to be rescued, they will be taken to a shelter until you are able to get to them. I know that sounds incredibly scary but you can help the rescue mission go easier if you follow simple steps.

Hill’s established the first-of-its-kind national network in 2013 as an extension of its Food, Shelter & Love® program. Hill’s Disaster Relief Network is ready to help at a moment’s notice so that they can ensure that all of the animals, though stressed and upset, have proper nutrition to keep them healthy until they can be reunited with their owners. Shelters are already stressed with the animals that they have but many of them become emergency shelters as well.

In the last three years, the Hill’s network has delivered free pet food to more than 60 different shelters and veterinary clinics across the country in response to 25 major incidents – including floods in Colorado, fires in Idaho and Arizona, the fertilizer plant explosion in Texas, the mudslide in Washington state and tornadoes in the central and southern regions of the country.

The Hill's Food, Shelter & Love™ program is a living, breathing example of how we live out our mission statement on a daily basis and is based on four pillars: Volunteer, Donate, Choose and Adopt.

Hill’s Food, Shelter & Love® program provided over $280 million worth of food to nearly 1,000 shelters, 365 days a year helping over 8 million pets find a new home…and counting.

You can follow Hill's on the following networks to stay up to date on what their current news is and if they have current needs.

Always remember that weather can change in a minute and you may be unprepared. So please for the love of your pets, get them microchipped and make sure their ID tags have the correct phone numbers on them. It could help save their lives.

Think back to Hurricane Katrina. Do you recall all the pets that had been separated from their families? So many families were sent to other towns and states. Many had to leave their pets behind. Please don't be a statistic.

Carma Poodale (Pood-ALE) is a multi-species lifestyle pet blogger who talks about pets, wildlife, products we love, traveling and life in general. We try to find the good in every day life.
Service dog advocate.
Influencer,
Dog mom, cat mom, lover of nature
Love Life Like a Poodale

5 comments:

But for the grace of god, I've never had to face something like that. Still it does make sense to have a plan in place especially if you're just out running a "quick" errand. Thanks for putting it into perspective.

This was the first time it had ever happened and it really made ma think about the consequences of the What if's. Usually we would have been with her but she was test driving a car for a couple of days and didn't want muddy paws in it. It had been sprinkling all day.

That storm wasn't supposed to be here for at least a hour. That was plenty of time for a 10 minute errand. Ma always likes to have cash on hand during the storms. Our town has been hit by a tornado before and we lost power for days. Everywhere you went was a cash only sale.

an excellent post and a good reminder. people may want to get a watertight envelope for the documents.

i usually attend the colgate-palmolive annual meeting, they own hill's. during the q and a, i precessed my question to ian cook, the ceo, by thanking him for all that colgate gives to animal shelters and how important they are in doing this.

he thanked me and the took the opportunity, he is the ceo after all, to tell the shareholders some details of all they do. then i asked my question. i felt good about thanking him during meeting because companies should hear that they are appreciated by individual people not just organizations. days later i received a thank you and coupons for hills food.

i broke my wrist so there are no upper case anything until my cast comes off and i can use two hands.

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